Month: May 2018

I wrote this blog article on a holiday with my family in Iceland. This holiday was a good occasion for me to take inventory and sort my priorities. I looked at what I was carrying around with me and identified some superfluous burdens. In everyday life I am often not aware of the unnecessary things that I am holding on to.

I am a healing practitioner and letting go is one of the important issues I help my clients with. Turns out that my pictures of Iceland fit very well to the experiences with letting go I share here.

In Iceland the wind blows everything away

Everybody has an affinity for different places. Some people are drawn to an island in the Caribbean and others enjoy Spain. For recharging my husband and I like to visit the Baltic Sea. It is about an hour from Hamburg and a short visit there feels like a holiday to us.

Iceland is a magical place for my family and me. All of us can relax and let go there easily. The crisp air and wide-open landscape resonate with us; it helps us to just be there. This time we spent two weeks in the northern part of the island.

Letting go is work in progress for me

I started into the subject of letting go right at the beginning of our journey at the airport. We were late and searching for our check-in counter when I realised that my oldest daughter was wearing a light jacket. I could not believe my eyes! She forgot her winter coat and we were travelling to a country were it would still be snowing!

Instantly I was in “Mom Worries Mode” At first I blamed myself for not checking for the third time whether she took the right jacket like I did with the rest of the family.

In the airplane I finally calmed down. Theoretically I know that I can´t and don´t want to be responsible for everything. This incident shows that letting go is still a work in progress for me. When I found out the next day that my middle daughter had accidentally packed last year´s too small winter boots, I only laughed.

We solved the jacket problem of the older daughter with layers of sweaters. Luckily the weather was agreeable so that my second daughter did not get wet feet, they were only cold sometimes.

In this situation the Icelandic saying Þetta reddast! was appropriate. It means: All will be well. Icelanders are very laid back and spontaneous people. For them appointments are loose arrangements. This can cause problems, for example in tourism. I know that German travel companies prefer to do business in Iceland with German expatriates because they are more reliable.

On this holiday we also experienced the positive side of the Icelandic ease when help for our punctured tire arrived the same evening instead of the next morning. Our friendly repairman said he came earlier because he was bored.

Icelanders are experts in making good coffee and I gladly borrow some of their ease. For me they are not ideal examples for letting go however; their mentality is too different.

Letting go liberates energies

When we let go of things we create free space. This is true for objects as well as for immaterial things. This means when we let old stuff go, we have more time and we are more open for new ideas.

At the end of 2016 I let go of my cooperation with my Icelandic friend. For four years we had offered workshops for women in the Westfjords of Iceland. When I told her about my decision to stop she was very glad I took the initiative. She is in her mid-sixties and wanted to work less.

Now I am looking forward to new projects in Iceland and continue to learn Icelandic. On this holiday I could already talk a little with the natives.

The Icelandic joint venture must have cost much more energy than I was aware of, because afterwards I was much faster with my own projects. Since 2017 I have more national and international clients and I started two blogs: This one about the Fairy Tale Dimension and personal development and my German blog about my work.

My 8-year-old with Iceland-cap

It is hard for me to let go of my children

My oldest daughter used to be quite timid. When she was in nursery school I was relieved when I found out that the teachers there worked hand in hand with me. All of us supported her by helping her to stretch her boundaries without demanding too much. I learned then that it was helpful to share some of my parental responsibilities.

A continuing challenge for me is my son´s school situation. He started school in a big chaotic class with a lot of very difficult kids. The headmaster was not able to alleviate the situation and I was very much afraid that my quiet sensitive child would suffer. Luckily my son was okay because the teacher managed to give him a feeling of security despite of the difficult situation. She was not able to devote much time to his reading problems and so I arranged with her to support him at home as well as I can.

Even though my son has found wonderful friends in his class it still is a conscious effort for me to let go of my worries.

Enough with self-limiting beliefs

Only when we are aware of our self-set boundaries, which direct us undetected and inhibit us unseen, we can let them go.

I discovered such a superfluous belief just before my 50th birthday. My husband asked me what I wanted to do because I was not keen on having a big party. I would love to have a picnic by the sea was my spontaneous answer. At the same time I heard an inner voice telling my, that this was not possible because my birthday is in February and in winter it is much too cold for picnics. I realised that I had found a totally useless self-limiting belief. Why should this not be possible? I was shocked to see that I am obviously still limiting myself unnecessarily.

Our picnic on the Baltic Sea in February 2016

My husband and I had a wonderful picnic at the sea-shore in February. This experience has inspired my motto for the next decade of my life: “Enough with the self-limiting beliefs!” Since then I have been watching out for this little voice telling me what I should or should not do.

Letting go in my Healing Practise

Letting go is a central part of my energy work. I help my clients to understand what they are holding on to at the moment and why. Only when they are aware of what is going on they are able to let go. Afterwards we work together at finding out ways to change routines that are not beneficial any more.

A few days before our holiday I got a phone call from a client who had been very tired since our healing session. I found out that she has used this session as a starting point to let things she did not need any more go. Why was this making her tired?

When we let go of things we have leaned on for a long time,there suddenly is a void. We can compare this to changing important parts of the foundation of our house: The whole construction can start to wobble. As a consequence we need additional energy to maintain our balance as well as adding new pieces to form a new basis. I have experienced this often myself and the only thing I can do then is to take good care of myself.

My client was so tired because she was busy reconstructing her foundation. I was very glad to witness this. She is well on her way to become the person she wants to be.

Rainbow over Dettifoss

Get to know your autopilot

Automatic reactions cause us to cruise through our lives automatically. Because we are not in the driver´s seat we sometimes end up in places we had not wanted to go. We need to be more aware in our daily lives to realise when we are on autopilot and just follow worn-out tracks. It takes a conscious effort to leave old roads and try some new ones. Being aware and turning the autopilot off literally opens new avenues for us.

Humour helps me a lot

What happens when we laugh? Genuine laughter involves the whole body. The face muscles move and tension in other regions of the body, for example the stomach or the neck, disappear. When we laugh heartily we turn our attention to something fun and aggravation and resentment don´t have a chance to cling to us.

Especially in my profession humour is very helpful. It keeps me grounded when I don´t take myself too serious. My humour helps me to maintain a healthy distance to the subjective input I get through my energy work. This is the reason why humour is very welcome in my practice.

Less structure gives me more freedom

Since I was in Iceland for the first time I have changed a lot in my daily life. In the past detailed plans gave me safety; I was the Queen of lists. Slowly I realised that I did not need so many structures anymore. They felt confining to me and I wanted to have more creativity and spontaneity in my life .

Today I use lists and structures to organise my daily tasks efficiently and create room that I can fill with creativity and surprises.

I also don´t define my goals in great detail anymore and don´t spend as much time trying to figure out how to achieve them. I live much more in the here and now and, with the help of my inner compass, check regularly whether I am still on the right track.

Even though this change has made my life more insecure, my quality of life has increased considerably. I do much more what I like in my everyday life. The things that, in my opinion, need to be done I try to do in a way that resonates with me. My family supports me in this.

I believe that before implementing a complex time management system it is much more efficient to order ones priorities and get rid of unnecessary things.

It is very liberating and a lot of energy can be saved by letting go. I very much recommend you to take inventory and look critically at your personal priorities in regular intervals, ideally when being in a place you resonate with.

This is my 25th blogpost!

Some of you, dear readers, have accompanied me from the beginning last summer. You followed me getting used to and falling in love with blogging.

Thank you so much for your support!

A lot has happened in this blog since I started last summer. You can see this in the amount of information that I have shared here so far. In todays post I put together a synopsis of the behind the scenes information about the Fairy Tale Dimension (FTD) I have collected so far. It was like visiting old friends for me.

What were your favourite posts?

The blueprint of the FTD

In the FTD magic is possible and works well. Magic is taught in schools. Some inhabitants can shape-shift. Our laws of physics apply everywhere in our dimension. It is the same in the Fairy Tale Dimension. Sadly magic doesn´t work here on earth, but it works there. Basic physical laws can differ from country to country. It depends on the stories that are played there.

The Fairy Tale Dimension looks like a map

The structure of the Fairy Tale Dimension is one flat plane. Each part of the fairy tale dimension, every country, is located on the same large map. As you reach the border of one country you enter the next in a consecutive way. There are different ways and shortcuts to every country: Magic doors, valleys, everything you can come up with.

Each country has a different energy configuration so it can be tricky to travel from one country to another. Temperatures and seasons may suddenly change. The climate can be very different: There are icy and warm, wet and dry environments.

Time passes differently in each country dependent on the needs of the inhabitants. Some countries have longer days, some have longer nights. In some there is always night or day.

Inhabitants

As you know from different fairy tales there are all kinds of sentient inhabitants. There are intelligent animals, humanoids and wise plants. I have even met a species of smart rocks. There are magic creatures like unicorns and dragons. I have met a herd of a meter- high playful unicorns and played with tiny dragons that reflected my emotions. They bite quite fiercely by the way.

An important group in the FTD are the magicians. They are healers, teachers and arbiters. Depending on the fairy tale yountry they live in they are able to manipulate the landscape an weather.

Magic Schools

Since the blueprint of the FTD supports magic there are schools for magicians. Magic schools are boarding schools where beings from all over the FTD are taught. The schools are secured by spells so the students can practise magic without being hurt. They learn how to use spells, create magic objects and manipulate energy in numerous other ways.

Technology

The fairy tale dimension has mostly rural societies. Their standard of technology is comparable to our middle ages. Because magic works, there really is no need for technology. Machines are mostly powered by magic.

Life Times

As I have stated before time is different in the FTD. In each country it can pass slower or faster depending on the needs of the inhabitants. This means that the creatures of the FTD have a very different concept about life times. My friend, the tree teacher, is probably more than 300 years old. The small unicorns I played with in the meadow I visited not long ago live in eternal light and don´t know how old they are. When they have played enough they change to another country in FTD or leave the dimension.

This accounts for me having hardly seen any graveyards. People appear from somewhere and go somewhere after a while. They age when it is part of the fairy tale they live in and they don’t age when it isn´t. The Grim Reaper is responsible for people leaving the dimension and the GrImporter for those who want to enter the dimension.

Societies

The fairy tale societies are structured very diversely. Some have kings and queens. Others have democratic rulers. Others don´t have any government at all, in Mertopia for example.

Evolution

The FTD is growing, meaning that new countries are added to the plane of this dimension constantly. Other countries are given up and vanish or are forgotten. The ring bearer works together with the GrImporter when creating new countries.

Evolution happens in the FTD by changing the frequency of the dimension. You can translate frequencies into colours. On February 3rd 2018 the long overdue frequency change to yellow was implemented. This should have happened over 1000 years ago. There was no ring bearer who was able to do this.

The Ring Bearer

Responsible for the evolution of the FTD is the ring bearer. Only he or she can work with the blueprint, add and subtract countries and complete frequency changes. This ring bearer is the spiritual leader of the FTD. He is not responsible for governing. Otherwise the ring bearer´s job is more that of a mediator.

This ring bearer is either a magician in the FTD or a healer in our dimension. This office is alternating between the dimensions and shows how very intertwined the two dimensions are. The last ring bearer was a magician from the FTD. I am the present ring bearer.

The ring

In both dimensions secret fraternities keep the ring energy safe when there is no ring bearer. They are also responsible for delivering it to the other dimension when a ring bearer shows himself.

The ring of the FTD is broad in the middle and there is some kind of blue material at both sides. It is framed with a silver material. The ring has another form in our dimension.

The three other insignias of the ring bearer

In the FTD the ring bearer has access to some magic objects that are called the “insignias of power”. These objects come with the ring. They are very useful and help a lot with the normal tasks of the ring bearer. They are:

A pair of boots that has wings on each boot that enable the bearer to move swiftly around (much like the greek god Hermes). With these boots you can take short cuts nobody else can take.

A cape that has the power to make the bearer invisible (remember Harry Potter?). It also protects the user from all kinds of bad magic and keeps him safe.

The cape is fastened by a big fibula. This is the third magic object and it can create a very strong light. From this light nothing can hide. Things and beings have to become visible as they truly are. This is very important because in the FTD so many things are not what they seem to be. Deception is an art form and quite normal. The light of the fibula can also be used to overcome every kind of darkness.

The home of the ring bearer

I picture my home base in the FTD as a conglomerate of medieval buildings about two stories high. There is a round tower in the middle of the compound. One building in the front looks like a castle and is used only for representative purposes. It has a big hall that looks very impressive.

Normal visitors have only access to the castle. The other buildings look unpretentious and have a warm welcoming vibe. One of these buildings is my personal cottage. In the other buildings there are guest rooms, a kitchen, a small dining hall and quarters for the helpers. One of my favourite rooms is the library. The room is not very big but has a connection to every important library of the dimension. On the grounds you can also find a small arboretum, a kitchen garden and colourful flowerbeds. The paths that connect the buildings are made out of the black sand I found at home.

Some people have been living in my home base for years, some just stay for a couple of weeks. To get permission to enter this area people have to pass a thorough screening by the fraternity of the shadows. The fraternity is responsible for keeping my home safe. One could say that this part of my home is actually located “in the shadows”. In fact the buildings other than the castle can be perceived by people who have passed the screening only.

The shadows

Some info on the shadows: They are sentient and very much alive. When they are not needed i.e. being cast as a shadow they are free to go wherever they want. There are shadows of every kind of being. They shadow the skills of their owners. Some of them also have additional talents. The shadow of a mermaid for example feels much more comfortable out of the water than its owner. There are shadows of magicians and elves, trees, rocks and mermaids. Some of them have special skills that are very useful for the fraternity. A lot of the shadows belong to the fraternity of shadows and thus play an important albeit secret role in the FTD. They have special shadow pathways that enable them to travel swiftly all over the dimension.

Since the shadows know everything their owners know, the fraternity gathers lots of information. The headquarters of the fraternity is also on the grounds and is shrouded heavily in veils so only a handful of people know where it is and how to access it.

Books in the fairy tale dimension

In the FTD books are not very common. This is due to the fact that academia is not important in most of the fairy tale countries. People who read books are often magicians, healers or belong to governments.

A lot of people don´t have much use for knowledge from books. Basic arithmetic and writing are taught in most villages. Beings who want to get advanced education and are exceptionally bright are sent to boarding schools free of charge. The schools maintain themselves by selling the magic objects they produce.

The magic library

A lot of books have their home at the main library of the fairy tale dimension (FTD). It is located in a separate building near the magic school. It is not the only library but the biggest one. It is connected to other libraries in many different countries. Many magicians and teachers have libraries and some also have permanent passageways to the main library, just like me. The magic library has high ceilings and is lined with bookshelves.

Information about magic books

Some books can talk

Some books can interact with you. You can ask questions about their subject and they will answer as best as they can. They can also rephrase an answer if you have not understood. If you don´t speak the language they are written in, they will translate for you. Of course you can still read them by simply turning the pages.

They come in all sizes

There are miniscule books the size of your little fingernail and giant books about 2 meters long, a meter high and a meter wide. Some of these are big enough for you to sit in and listen to their story. Quite cosy, I can tell you.

Varieties and textures

Many books have pages made of paper. Others have silk pages or pages made of hide and things you don´t want to contemplate too closely. Some are made out of pure magic. Some are bound in leather some in velvet. There are ones that have a cover made of feathers, flowers or fungus.

Books can have personalities

The talking books in the FTD are sentient beings and are alive in some way. Some you have to coax into talking and others will babble away easily. A book bound in barbed wire and spikes may be more difficult to talk to than a book with a cloud cover. That doesn´t mean necessarily that the cover will tell you something about the personality of the book.

The Grim Reaper

What happens when people want to disengage from the fairy tale dimension altogether? For this you need the Grim Reaper. He is personified death. The Grim Reaper is an integral part of the FTD. His job is built into the blueprint of the dimension. He is the gatekeeper who escorts people out of the dimension into other states of consciousness. His job is really big and very important. He has hundreds of billions of possible clients: Every inhabitant of the FTD.

If someone is choosing to die they subconsciously call the Grim Reaper. He receives the signal and comes and gets them. There are many different manners of disengagement to choose from, but in the FTD most people prefer to simply vanish. They rarely create illnesses, accidents or other violent ways to disengage. Interestingly their bodies disappear with them. At the agreed time death appears in one of his disguises and takes them by the hand. With the other hand he opens the exit and escorts his client out.

Sometimes when he shows up a bit late people have changed their minds and this is where the legend of cheating the Grim Reaper comes from. In fact people don´t cheat death; they simply change their opinion and choose to stay longer.

The two insignias of the Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper uses his insignias to perform his duties. They are handed down from one reaper to the next.

The first item is the magic key that will open the door out of the dimension. I picture this key as a scythe. If you observe it closely however you can see that it does not have any sharp edges. It looks more like a big intricately crafted key with runes on it mounted on a stick. He is the only being who can open the door of the dimension with this key.

The famous black hooded cape is the second item. It helps the Grim Reaper to shapeshift and appear at a multitude of locations. To journey in all parts of the dimension simultaneously he has a specially outfitted room in his house. There are lots of mirrors on the walls facing inwards. Death stands in the middle of the room with his cape and key and his image is multiplied hundredfold. He then tunes in to the different calls for disengagement and walks through the mirrors in as many versions of himself as it takes to meet his clients everywhere in the dimension.

The GrImporter

The GrImporter is the door into the fairy tale dimension. When you want to live in the FTD and make playful experiences there you connect with the GrImporter. Basically the GrImporter is the sales representative for the FTD. When there are vacancies in the different fairy tales he fills them by doing sales-pitches. For example:

“Ladies and gentlemen, there happens to be an opening in the very well-known fairy tale of Snow White. One of the seven dwarfs has just left the dimension and needs to be replaced. His name is Dopey.” He opens a video window to this fairy tale that shows the remaining six dwarfs happily cooking dinner in their beautiful old-fashioned house in the woods.

The present GrImporter looks human and young although he has had this job for more than 100 earth years. He has dark blond hair that is sticking out on all sides because he habitually runs his fingers through it. He has friendly blue eyes that are twinkling with laughter. He wears a light blue overall with a name tag identifying him: “GrImporter, Incoming Services of the Fairy Tale Dimension”.

He is not only responsible for the incoming people but also has to ensure the logistics for the fairy tale country changes inside the dimension. In collaboration with the ring bearer he can help to establish new fairy tale lands or close countries that are not popular any more.

The postal system

The postal system encompasses the whole dimension. This requires a huge well oiled machinery and well planned logistics. This is one of the big achievements of the FTD. Every FTD country of a certain size sends emissaries to work for the postal system.

The mail consists mostly of letters and parcels just like here. Newspapers and books for scholars are transported and traders send their merchandise all over the dimension. The bulk of the mail is transported by horse, boat, coach or by air and is delivered to the central mail station of every country. From there it is distributed further to cities and homes.

Information delivery systems

Since in the FTD deceit and secrets are very important there is a big variety of other methods of delivering messages. Important messages are often sent by personal messengers only. There is a special branch of the mail company that specializes in important and fast deliveries. Urgent personal notices or secret government communications are only sent via these special messengers.

Means of communication

The shadows have their own independent dimension wide network of intelligence that is used only by the spiritual leader of the FTD the ring bearer. The magicians have other means of communication. They use crystal balls for example that can communicate with other crystal balls. These work a bit like Skype does on earth.

There are also automated feathers that come in groups. What one feather writes the others of the same group immediately start copying, regardless of where they are located in the FTD.

As you can imagine these sophisticated magic objects need a lot of attention and maintenance and are therefore very rare and expensive. There are many other means of communication in the FTD: Divination, runes, I-Ging… Do you have any impressions?

The workers in the postal system

Mostly young people apply for work in the postal system because in this job you get to see a lot of the FTD and it is exciting, too. This makes it a very popular job for young adventurers.

Having worked for the mail company is a good reference in your resume and opens up important job opportunities. A lot of future leaders have worked for the postal system in their past. They leave there with their own network of personal connections all over the dimension.

Training of personal messengers

The mail people are trained in magic, the martial arts and diplomacy. Personal messengers get a more thorough training than normal workers depending on their individual talents. You can compare this branch of the postal system to a highly specialized task force.

The Illness in the FTD

The Great Seven Magicians

There are seven Great Magicians in the fairy tale dimension. The old tree magician teaching at the magic school is the leader of this group. (See The Magic School).

You met the three magicians who delivered the power of the ring to me the ring bearer: The snake, the badger and the butterfly. They also belong to the Great Seven.

The job of the Great Seven is monitoring the magic evolution of the fairy tale dimension. They collect new spells, or work on new areas of magic that were not yet included in the blueprint of the FTD. They test them and put together a list of recommended changes. The only being that can change the blueprint and incorporate these new areas of magic is the ring bearer. The ring bearer has to master the third living rune on his ring that represents the blueprint of the FTD to change the blueprint.

The Frequency change in the fairy tale dimension

The last frequency change that has to be completed was from purple to yellow. Every living thing needs this change of the predominant frequency to stay healthy and well. This change of frequency is a normal evolution for this dimension.

They have never had the need to concern themselves with the frequency change before because there was always a ring bearer who was able to complete it in time. This time it was long overdue. You can read more here.

How bad was it?

The situation was very critical when I was appointed the ring bearer 3 years ago. The energy volume had reached an extremely low level. This meant that everybody felt it. I felt the pressure to help fast and was very motivated to support the inhabitants.

Sickness because of an external cause was unheard of until then. Death and accidents that caused physical harm were never permanent in the Fairy Tale Dimension and always a choice. They were part of the stories in the respective fairy tales and were remedied in seconds.

With the sickness caused by the delayed frequency change it was different. People could not snap out of the injuries or death like they were used to. They stayed weak and sick and could not be helped. Injuries healed much slower, if at all, and for some people death lasted much longer than planned.

Countries where shape-shifting was an integral part, like in the merpeople country Mertopia, were hit worst. The shape shifting could only happen slowly if at all and life was seriously disrupted because of this. The longer this situation lasted, the more a depressive mood was spreading throughout the dimension.

The low energy also affected plants and animals. They could not grow and develop normally. In the Fairy Tale Dimension it sometimes is difficult to define what a plant or an animal is because a lot of the species are sentient.

Finalising the frequency change

On the 3rd of February 2018 I was able to finalise the change from purple to yellow because I managed the third rune. I can´t explain how it happened. I remember that in meditation I suddenly realised that I was able to work with the third rune and immediately did it. You can read more here.

I had had many trial runs with the two first runes that are also part of the ring before that. I am an accomplished energy healer here and this helped me working with the invisible energy of magic. Since I did not have a clue how magic worked it was not easy.

The head magicians, the Great Seven trained me patiently, especially my special friend the tree teacher. I recall some instances where my exercises in invoking the two runes resulted in an impressive display of fireworks and there would have been serious destruction if the magicians had not kept everybody safe.

Could I do this again easily now? No. I need to be totally accepting of myself to use this rune without doing any harm. Self-acceptance is definitely one of my life´s goals that I have not achieved permanently yet.

After the frequency change

Half a year after the change things are slowly going back to normal. The people, plants and wildlife in the more affected fairy countries are still recovering while in other countries there are hardly any marks of the illness any more.

New countries

New countries can be added easily now. Some have been waiting for a long time because the process before the change was long and tedious. You can read about the addition of new countries here.

Evolution of magic

The most important change is that the magic can flow freely once more. The energy volume is again at an optimal level. Shape shifting is easy again and new fields of magic can evolve. I am not sure where the current evolution of magic that has just started will lead us in this era.

The Great Seven magicians are in charge of filtering and promoting new magic tricks before contacting the ring bearer to implement necessary changes of the blueprint.

Some young enthusiasts prefer to contact me themselves to present their new ideas. These two ways ensure that good ideas for the evolution of magic are not lost.

One thing that is changing massively at the moment is the integration of technology from the human dimension. The GrImporter is a good example for this. He is the biggest tech nerd I have met so far.

There are some magicians who experiment with databanks in magic book form as a means to facilitate the organising the fairy tale countries more efficiently.

Just like some humans, they are fascinated by new gadgets. Sooner or later there will probably be some interesting hybrids and magic machines.

Linking the two dimensions

In one of my first objective interactions with the fairy tale dimension I was asked by the collective of the FTD to build a closer connection to our dimension. I understood their wish to have more contact but I advised against getting too closely attached. We are already close and become more and more aware of each other. My feeling was that it would be better not to build a solid bridge between the two dimensions. This is why I constructed a loose chain that now links the two dimensions. This chain ensures that not every single movement of one dimension is carried directly to the other. It allows each dimension some room to manoeuver on its own. This has been a good decision because both dimensions are rocking their boats quite fiercely at the moment.

The inhabitants of the fairy tale dimension have an intuitive knowing of our dimension. There are a lot of scholars who are studying our dimension. They visit us regularly for what we would term anthropological studies. Perhaps you have even met one of them without realizing it.

Behind the Scenes Views

The number of fairy tale countries I share behind the scenes views of grows as my blog expands. Here is a list of the fairy tale countries we have visited so far: